The importance of children’s early literacy development cannot be overstated, with a child’s success in school and later in life, to a great extent, dependent on their ability to read and write. Early literacy intervention has been at the forefront of the Children in the Wilderness Zambezi teams’ minds this year, mainly due to the lack of learning resulting from school closures during COVID-19 throughout 2020 and 2021.
Because of this, last week, 40 teachers from Zambia and Zimbabwe – ranging from ECD B to Grade 2 – were hosted on an intensive, week-long teacher literacy training workshop in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The workshop was facilitated by CITW, in collaboration with a trainer from Wordworks, an organisation whose main aim is providing early literacy programme training. The focus throughout the week was on delivering high-quality lesson guidance and resources to teachers, for them to build upon the early language and literacy skills of their students.
Through this guidance and the materials provided, we are optimistic that the young students will experience well-balanced, creative and effective lessons which will strengthen the children’s oral language and emergent reading and writing skills.
After witnessing the passion, enthusiasm and gratitude shown by the 40 teachers during the week, the CITW Zambezi team firmly believe that the teachers will take every ounce of newly acquired knowledge back to their schools, and use this to make tangible differences in the lives of their students – the future custodians of our country’s resources.
